Waypoints Along Your Fruitful Blogging Journey

Many new bloggers have dreams of earning an income from their blog. They dream of having a large amount of traffic and of being a respected voice in their blogging community. But many also don’t realize that in order to realize these dreams, they will have to work and sacrifice quite a lot. Great traffic numbers and solid incomes don’t just happen quickly simply because you started a blog. They happen through hard work and dedication to the craft.

So what might a fruitful blogging journey look like then? Well, I’ve come up with a theoretical scenario in which we check in with you, the successful blogger, at four waypoints along your blogging journey. If you can imagine yourself in this scenario, then maybe you can make it a reality.

Day One

On day one, you launch your blog. You’re excited. You have written a great About page that explains to your potential readers who you are and why you are qualified to be blogging. You publish your first post, which outlines your goals for the blog and lists some features you hope to publish in the coming years.

You enable comments and wait for your first reader. And you also spend time creating a blog roll of links to other established blogs in the hopes that they’ll notice you. You’re a bit nervous, naturally, but you’re also optimistic about this new venture. You have high hopes and can’t wait to see what happens.

Week One

After a week, you’re possibly a little disappointed. No one comments on your posts. Your traffic numbers are very small; in fact, probably the only people who read your blog consist of your close circle of friends. But you persist.

You write intelligent posts. You respond to comments when they do happen. You try to link to other interested articles by more established bloggers. And you sincerely seek to overcome your frustrations. You are beginning to understand just how much work this entire production demands of you.

Month One

You’ve finally caught you first break: an established blogger randomly read one of your articles and linked to you in a response on his blog. Your traffic spiked for that day, though it has since fell off. Now you have tasted what it’s like to be read and responded to, and with that newfound excitement you throw yourself into your task. You understand that your hard work can and will pay off. You can see success right around the corner.

Year One

A year later, you are blogging well and smoothly. You have some income from ads and your traffic is steadily increasing. You haven’t broken into the big time yet, though you are starting to realize that some assumptions you made about blogging were unrealistic.

Instead, you have figured out how to play to your strengths and monetize your blog most efficiently. You are recognized as one of many important voices in your blogging community, and you have developed many worthwhile relationships with your fellow bloggers and readers. You are happy with how things are going, and you’re looking to expand your blogging plan in order to take the next step to more lucrative internet-related opportunities.